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Uber posts $708 million loss and says finance head left

HONG KONG – Uber posted a $708 million loss in the most recent quarter and said its head of finance is leaving the company, the latest executive to depart in what has been a very tough year to date.

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Uber told The Associated Press Thursday that its first-quarter loss was narrower than the $991 million loss it posted in the previous quarter. It had revenue of $3.4 billion, up 18 percent from the final three months of last year.

Even before the announced departure of head of finance Gautam Gupta, which the company announced Thursday, Uber has struggled .

The San Francisco company recently lost its head of communications, president and other senior executives as it faces allegations of sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace. CEO Travis Kalanick had to apologize earlier this year after video of him arguing with an Uber driver was made public. And the Justice Department is probing allegations that Uber used an app to thwart authorities who were trying to determine if the company was following local regulations.

Gupta's departure comes just days after Kalanick's mother was killed in a boating accident.

The company this week followed through on threats to fire star autonomous-car researcher Anthony Levandowski, whose hiring touched off a bitter trade-secrets fight with Waymo, the former self-driving car arm of Google.

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Waymo has alleged that Levandowski downloaded 14,000 documents containing its trade secrets before he left the company to found a startup that was later purchased by Uber.

On Thursday, an Uber driver was killed outside of Chicago by a 16-year-old girl in a bizarre and apparently random attack with a knife and machete.

Uber said it's launching a search for a chief financial officer. Gupta, who had been with Uber for four years, is going to work at another startup.

Uber is looking for a chief financial officer with experience at a public company as it considers its own initial public offering.